| June 2009 |
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Featured in this issue: Consultant's Corner – Cultivated Data Leads to Targeted Campaigns Also In This Issue: Royal Canadian Dragoons Lead the Charge with GiftWorks Fewer Staff, Greater Services: World Medics Tell Your GiftWorks Story: You Can Win New State Partner: Arkansas Online Donations: Free Webinar teaches the basics Meet Lisa Breneman, Customer Service Representative Consultant's Corner
Cultivating Donors: The Art and the Science  Cultivating donors. It's an art and a science. The best development officers (and some board members) are naturals at this; it's in their blood. And it's the heart of fundraising on all levels.The science of cultivating donors is always something to work on. Research shows, as Consultant Marc S. Saffren, CFRE, of m3 development (Manorville NY) reports, that a strong follow-up to a gift results in increased giving. In the study, which 2,250 new direct mail donors, 220 received a thank-you phone call from a board member within 48 hours of their gift; the other donors received standard acknowledgments. Those who received a thank-you call gave 40% more in a second gift; and 70% of them were still giving two years later. More than 80% of the other donors had quit giving 2 years later. We talked with Marc about how to use your (GiftWorks) database to ramp up your cultivation skills and point you to new targets. Marc advises: "At the outset, especially in these challenging times, an organization needs a diversified development plan, This means that gifts are solicited using a variety of vehicles and strategies, from many audiences (individuals, corporations, foundations, government sources, event attendees, on-line giving campaigns) in a number of ways (direct mail, special events, personal ask,) and accepted in a number of forms (cash, gifts-in-kind, credit card, planned gifts, etc.), It takes all kinds of gifts and giving patterns to build a sustainable revenue stream." Once a donor responds to one of your solicitations, the CULTIVATION process begins. You should have the stewardship and planned acknowledgment process in place. Think outside the box here! Don't limit yourself to the generic thank-you letter, the handwritten note from a Board member, or a Welcome New Member packet. "Now," Marc continues, "comes the real work of cultivation and stewardship:" Here's how it might work to go beyond the point of thank-you and lay the groundwork for additional and larger gifts. The appropriate person in your organization makes a personal phone call to the donor. After warmly thanking the donor for the gift, the caller asks what motivated the donor to give, why he is interested in your organization, what other related areas might be of interest to him, (As a consultant, Marc and his team develop customized phone scripts for clients to help callers ask questions in a natural way.) Then the caller asks to update donor data and obtain the email address for the file. If the donor gave for a specific designated purpose, the caller should be prepared to talk about the program of their interest. In the course of the conversation, the caller might identify other donors or board members who have a connection to the new donor. Record what you learn. Develop a system for callers to capture information they gathered and save it in GiftWorks. (You might designate custom field[s] for this information, or add this person to a group of people who share that interest.) Now you have the makings of upcoming approaches:
If the donor is concerned about water run-off in local streams or is involved with businesses who are, you could ask him to get involved in your related project. If the donor is retired, financially connected, etc., you might involve him in your Planned Giving initiatives. (If the donor is a financial planner or investment adviser, you might want to invite him to a lunch where you orient his colleagues to annuities and other planned giving instruments.) If the donor has daycare interests and has a wealthy parent or family member, you might invite them both to see the architectural drawings for your new nursery. Of course, your cultivation plan must include steps to follow-up--and a system of reminders so the momentum gained is not lost. GiftWorks will be the tool that helps you pull it all together. You can now run reports from the queried information using SmartLists. Periodically you'll want to review the data you've gathered to watch for trends or indicators to reframe your appeals. With a consistent and effective plan for stewardship and cultivation, you can expect to see increases in involvement and gifts. All proving that old adage: Fundraising is Friendraising. Marc S. Saffren, CFRE, is the Managing Director of m3 Development. His organization offers tailored fundraising and philanthropy solutions that combine innovation with sound fundamentals. Learn more at www.m3Development.net | |
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The Guild of the Royal Canadian Dragoons: Fascinating GiftWorks Users
 GiftWorks user organizations run the gamut from newly-formed to ancient and from right here in Pennsylvania across the globe to Australia and Africa. Here's a vignette of an interesting organization: The colorful history of the Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD), a Regular Force armour regiment of the Canadian Army, goes back to 1883 with the formation of the Canadian Cavalry Corps School, first stationed at Quebec City. This most-senior regular Canadian cavalry regiment has seen action in South Africa during the Boer War, during both World Wars and the Korean War and during numerous peacekeeping assignments in the Middle East and the Balkans. Most recently, the Regiment has deployed troops as part of Canada's commitment to Afghanistan. The Regiment's Colonel-in-Chief is HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales. Formed in 1980, the Guild of the Royal Canadian Dragoons protects, preserves and furthers the traditions and heritage of the Royal Canadian Dragoons. The Guild Board of Directors is headed by the Colonel of the Regiment and spends donation funds toward the betterment of the Regimental Family. Also important is the Royal Canadian Dragoons Association which administers chapters across Canada, and exists to keep "the Old Comrades" in touch. The Guild Board of Directors meet twice per year, normally while the Regiment celebrates historically significant events, usually at the Regiment's current home station at Canadian Forces base Petawawa, Ontario. As the Guild administrative staff juggled with donor data held in a mix of Microsoft Access and Excel files, located physically in various locations and under the control of various offices (in different towns), the Guild worked with a professional fundraising consultant to seek a tool to consolidate this data into one database for better information management and to allow information sharing across the group. The consultant recommended GiftWorks. In addition to integrating all the disparate data, two other functions made GiftWorks a great choice. "It is so easy to run a query, for example, for donor recognition," says Derek Adams, Guild Executive Officer. "We could never do that before. We also find it easy to use for trend analysis." In the last few months, the Guild has been migrating the data from the various sources into the single database and this week they will populate the financial fields. Over time they hope to make the GiftWorks database accessible to all of their offices through a secure network over the Internet. Major Adams concludes: "Our main goal with database software was Information Management. But with GiftWorks we've found additional functionalities that will enable us to work better with our donors and data and increase our effectiveness as an organization." GiftWorks Stories
World Medics Supports Education, Nutrition, and Technology from Kenya to the Phillipines--Thanks to GiftWorks!  World Medics is a nonprofit at Loma Linda University (CA) which supports education and medical assistance projects associated with the work of the Seventh-day Adventist Church worldwide. They have been using GiftWorks since 2006. Recently Maynard Lowry of World Medics shared his GiftWorks story:"Fundraising research tells us that there are three things that donors want from the charities they support--timely acknowledgment, assurance that their gift was used as they directed, and knowledge that their gift made a difference. Giftworks makes it easy to do all three. Small charities need efficiency just as much as large ones do. Efficient communication and timely responses to donors keeps them on board with their support. Once the gift is made, Giftworks makes it easy to write donor thank-you letters and issue charitable receipts. Because the core of Giftworks is the donor database, creating mailing lists for newsletters and other communications is easy. Even the accounting and bookkeeping that are essential to meet board and donor expectations as well as the annual IRS 990 oversight reports can been integrated with Giftworks. The bottom line is that it doesn't take a huge executive staff and a bunch of accountants in cubicles to make even a small 501 (c)(3) organization run smoothly. World Medics operates with a small budget and several hundred donors. When we shifted to Giftworks, a volunteer took over a paid secretary/treasurer position--saving several thousand dollars. The money saved was used to support the purchase of food processing equipment for a school in Kenya, pay the salaries of several teachers in Thailand, buy a satellite dish for a school in Mozambique, and subsidize dental education for students in the Philippines, among other projects. Money saved on administrative functions just made the organization better at helping people. Donors give; the charity does what it says it will do. Only the charity knows that Giftworks makes it possible." Do You Have a GiftWorks Story?
We want to hear it! Tell us your story and win $2,000 in GiftWorks Products! Share how GiftWorks Fundraising Software has changed your organization! Please tell us, in 500 words or less, how GiftWorks has helped your nonprofit organization to achieve its mission. Just submit your entry, along with the name of a friend's nonprofit organization contact information, to Rewards@missionresearch.com. Both are required to win*. Enter now through June 30th - winner to be announced in July. If you win, your organization and your friend's organization will both receive a $1,000 GiftWorks gift certificate. *The story must be from a current GiftWorks client; the friend's nonprofit organization must be a new client referral, one entry per organization. New State Partner: Arkansas Coalition for Excellence
 This month the Arkansas state nonprofit association, Arkansas Coalition for Excellence (ACE), endorses Mission Research GiftWorks fundraising software to their members.ACE joins eleven other state nonprofits associations who work in partnership with Mission Research. These organizations include the nonprofit associations in Pennsylvania, New York, Colorado, Hawai'i, North Carolina, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, South Carolina, New Hampshire, and Utah. All of these organizations are nonprofit leaders in their states and we are honored to work with them. Whether you are a nonprofit, consultant, or just someone who cares about the nonprofit sector, please consider joining your state nonprofit association. For information on what your local state nonprofit association may offer, please visit The National Council of Nonprofits where you can find links to your local state associations. Online Donations: Free Webinar Teaches the Basics Thinking about online donations? Take a one-hour, free, online tour offered by Mission Research to learn more. Our staff will explain the process from start to finish. By the end you will understand what's involved and how you can get started using GiftWorks Online Donations. The tour is offered Tuesdays at 1 p.m. ET. Register online now. | |
